UCLA's shipshape

Nov. 28, 2005

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Karl Dorrell took some hits while he reorganized the Bruins. In 2003, his first season, UCLA began 6-2 but lost its last five. This season, they're 9-1 heading into Saturday's game at USC. FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Karl Dorrell took some hits while he reorganized the Bruins. In 2003, his first season, UCLA began 6-2 but lost its last five. This season, they're 9-1 heading into Saturday's game at USC. FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES - When the bird flu hits, let's all huddle up in Karl Dorrell's office at UCLA.

Germs don't get past the receptionist there.

Across from his desk is a flat screen, and above that are the Denver uniforms of Ed McCaffrey and Rod Smith, from Dorrell's days as the Broncos' receivers coach. Everything else has a crease in it.

"He's just like Mom. Mom hates dirt," said Kent Dorrell, a sports-apparel merchandiser and the sixth of seven Dorrell kids. Karl is No. 7.

"And we were roommates. He'd have everything neat and clean on his side of the room. Everything was piled on my side and I couldn't find stuff. So I'd just wear something of Karl's. And he'd give me that look."

John, the father, used to return from nine-month Navy tours and conduct bedtime inspections. In his third year at UCLA, Dorrell has presented a football team that can pass one.

The Bruins are 9-1 as they prepare for USC Saturday. It is their best record since 1998. That was the year they beat the Trojans, 34-17. They have not done so since. From that day to opening day 2005, they were 37-37.

Dorrell took some hits while he carefully reorganized the Bruins. He lost bowl games to Fresno State and Wyoming. Meanwhile, USC is 36-1 since Dorrell moved in.

Those who snap-judge a coach's personality were not kind to Dorrell. Pete Carroll celebrates each touchdown like a dad observing his child's first step. He's 54 going on 21. Dorrell, stoic and perma-pressed, is 41 going on 42.

"It's always interesting when people make judgments and they don't know anything about you," Dorrell said.

But Dorrell is no mannequin. When the UCLA job came open in late 2002, he ran a deep post to get it. They say he always ran the best routes.

"I told Dan that I was the right guy," Dorrell said. "I figured I had everything to gain and nothing to lose, so I went after it. I knew who they were interviewing (Mike Riley, Greg Robinson), and I had played and coached here. I was certain I was the best fit.

"Dan called me on Dec. 18, my birthday. I was in my office (in Denver), and we'd just finished practicing in the snow. He said, how about coming back to UCLA? I called my wife, and she started crying, and I called my mom, and she did, too."

Cora Dorrell ran the house in San Diego while her husband was sailing. She was a buyer for the Navy exchange. The kids had specific tasks on specific days. Karl's dishwashing night was usually Friday, except when he began playing for Helix High. Even then, he was mowing the grass Saturday morning.

"I saw what my brothers and sisters did to get into trouble and I didn't do it," he said. "We always had enough, but we didn't take things for granted. When my mom bought a pair of basketball shoes, they had to last the whole season."

Dorrell brought the same purpose to UCLA, where he is still 10th on the all-time receptions list.

He took the usual 12 units his first quarter. Then he realized he was behind schedule - not the school's, but his. Dorrell was a double major, psychology and business, and he wanted his degree in four years.

"So I front-loaded everything, and started taking 16 units during football season," Dorrell said. "I'd go to the library at night. I'd study tape from lunch until practice. I only had to go to summer session once. One year I took 16 units all three quarters."

James Washington, the old Cowboys safety, was a teammate.

"He'd catch a sideline pass in practice," Washington said. "Back then, if I had to run all the way over there, I was going to hit you. He'd just look at me and say, 'Hey, J-Dub.' Real quiet, no trash, and I'd look at him and say, 'Oh. OK, Karl.'

"Karl was what being a student-athlete is all about. And on the field, he wasn't the fastest, but he was always open."

When Dorrell became UCLA's coach he might have been a better fit as an NFL head coach. He expected his Bruins to be as diligent as McCaffrey and Smith. Of course they weren't his Bruins at all, but Bob Toledo's holdovers. Now Dorrell is the only coach that all but 17 of the current Bruins have had.

He also had a mismatched staff in '03, which he fixed in '04. In the process, he had to tell Washington and other ex-Bruins that he couldn't hire them.

"Ken Norton Jr. (now at USC) and I were lobbying," Washington said, "but Karl sat down and looked me in the eye. You have to respect that. This is his chance, and he has to do what he thinks is best."

"It's Year 3, so I can say it now - I didn't realize how far the program had fallen," Dorrell said. "But sometime last year, I started wondering if I was reaching out to these players as much as I should. They're all different. I had to realize there was a nurturing process."

So, in the offseason, Dorrell introduced Football 101, in which the players and coaches regularly met and discussed the game and the life. That, and Drew Olson's breakthrough at quarterback, helped. So did the residue of Dorrell's most significant victory - signing Maurice Drew.

And the office continues to reject dust. It is not for lack of work. Dorrell is usually at the office until 10 p.m. on weeknights during the season, and occasionally he sleeps over.

"(Denver coach) Mike Shanahan always told me to give football my best shot during the season, and then give my family my best shot in the offseason," said Dorrell, who, with his wife Kim, has two kids.

Some say 9-1 will be Dorrell's best shot at UCLA. He says he's only begun to clean his gun.

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